It is 2002, when nick woodman gets an idea about wearable wrist strap system that

could secure a camera to surfer’s body.

In 2002, after a failed business venture, Goop’s Founder and CEO Nick Woodman
embarked on a 5-month surfing tour of Australia and Indonesia, deciding to seek
inspiration for a new company by spending time on his favorite hobby, surfing.

He took a mm camera on tour with him, to strap to his wrist, with the intent of capturing
quality actions shots of himself and his friends surfing.

The camera he had was awkward to work with, and would either hit him in the face, or
fall off during the middle of a wave. This proved to be a challenge, and he wanted to be
both the camera man and the surfer; he desperately wanted a solution so that he and
his friends could capture all the action without having to take turns at being the camera
an on shore, and with amateur photographers having no way of getting close enough to
get good quality shots in the water.

he came with an idea of wrist strap that could secure camera to a surfer body. He met
brad Schmidt in Indonesia during his trip brad Schmidt is now creative director of GOP.

After returning from trip, they spent 2 years creating, developing, and testing
prototypes, until the first GOP camera was released in 2004.

In the initial days of GOP, Woodman would only hire people he was in college with, went
to high school with, or was related to; he surrounded himself with people he loved, and
people he knew he could trust.

The company has now grown from the Minimal/people to 300 employees.

The growth of the company has almost fully been attributed to the dawn of Youth and
social media, as so many enthusiasts upload and tag their GOP experiences on Youth, as
well as Backbone, with a video being posted every two and a half minutes – Woodman
recently referring to GOP as a Virally grown brand’. Even though the GOP started a
technological revolution in the area of wearable cameras/camcorders and impossible
angles, in the beginning Woodman wasn’t too concerned with the concept of intellectual
property; most of the big companies had o idea it was even in development.

Name and Prototype

In recent times however, none of the Goop’s prototype testing is done in the US, for
fears that prototypes will be stolen, so for the GOP HAD Hero 3, a research and
development trip was taken to the coast of Nicaragua, where Woodman, Schmidt, and
the other executives tested the cameras, by mounting them to their surfboards and
catching some waves.

The name GOP stemmed out of this desire for a camera/camera system that allowed
anyone to capture professional angles and good quality shots easily. He envisioned a
mm camera that could be strapped to a person’s wrist whilst surfing, as well as thinking
about the possibility of an elastic-type band that was both strong and adjustable, and
could secure a camera to a surfer’s body. At the time, most wrist straps were far from
fashionable; they were nearly rubber, and were normally awkward, painful and easily
broken.

Whilst still in Indonesia, Woodman and his wife ended up buying around 600 bead and
shell belts for approximately $2 each from a market in Bali, to come up with the funds
for the project. When he and his girlfriend Jill returned to America, they drove along
Californians coast in Woodman’s, selling these belts out the back of his ’74 Van for $60
each. He also began testing some prototypes he had designed of a wrist- mounted
camera, and after 2 years, when he finally felt he had the design right, he Doorway u
Trot Nils mother Ana sat tea ten company GOP.

Go camera system was sold in 2004; it was a mm film version. Samsung, amongst other
corporate giants, have been working on and developing camcorders for years, however
the GOP cameras stand out specifically for their ruggedness, as well as being easy to
use, and having better image and sound qualities.

Success Of Go Pro

Youth and Backbone have helped make the go pro what it is today. ” The vast majority
of GOP videos are user generated, with a new GOP tagged video being posted to Youth
every two and a half minutes. In 2012, GOP released a Wi-If Abacas and Wi-If Remote
Combo Kit, which means multiple cameras can be controlled at once, as well as being
able to stream directly to smartness, tablets and the Internet. In the future, GOP are
also looking at expanding beyond hardware and into media, and developing their own
television show, featuring mostly extreme sports videos shot by GOP users.

GOP as a company sold more than 800,000 cameras last year, as well as growing by
around 300%, and so with its loyal fan base and the recent release of its GOP HAD Hero
3, the cameras seem to Just be growing in popularity, as well as continuously
technologically advancing.

The First MM

The first GOP camera system was sold in 2004; however the ‘GOP HERO mm’ was made
available for sale on April 13, 2005. The mm film version weighed around 0.5 pounds,
and came as a package that included the camera, a Lear case with quick release, a
camera strap and a ski glove adapter lash. It was fully functional to 15 feet of water,
included a roll of film, and was marketed as a ‘reusable wrist camera’. In 2008, the
‘Digital HERO 5’ was released, and was the first of the GOP cameras to use a 1700 ultra-
wide lens, as well as having the capacity to take 5 megalith still photos, and capture
standard definition videos.

It was also the first of the GOP cameras to take a memory card; functioning with a BIB
SD card, as well as having NUMB of internal memory. It ran on batteries, and it was now
perfectly functional up to 100 feet of water. Since the first digital GOP camera, there
have been another 4 released, including the newest GOP HAD cameras to come on the
market; the ‘GOP HAD Hero 3’, which come in three different editions, with the company
describing the separate editions as being; consumer level, presumes level, and then
professional level.

Now
All of the GOP HAD Hero cameras have no viewfinders, or zoom lenses, and with the only
menu being a small 2-bit black and white LCD screen on the front of the camera. GOP
HAD Hero 3 Black Etalon Is ten newest, Ana Test quality GOP on ten market today, with
many retailers and reviewers calling it “the best action camera we have ever used; the
footage it takes is simply unparalleled”.

The GOP Hero 3 is 25% lighter than the previous model, as well as being 30% smaller.

On the front there is a six-element spherical lens, that provides a 1700 field of view like
the previous GOP camera’s, however with twice the image sharpness and a reduced
amount of barrel distortion. It also has 3 buttons, instead of the usual two; en being the
mode/power button, one being start/stop/record, and one to turn Wi-If on and off. There
are two lights on the front as well; when recording one blinks red, and when the Wi-If is
on the other blinks blue.

There are also smaller red flashing lights on the top, bottom and back that can be seen
from practically any angle too, so that it is very clear when it is recording.

One of the most appreciated things about the GOP casing is that is it fully user-
serviceable, meaning any of the components can be ordered independently if a
replacement is needed. GOP also make a variety of mounts, including helmet, wrist, and
chest mounts, handlebar and surfboard mounts, as well as various other adhesive
mounts, or the option of a hand-held pole.

This has allowed for the camera to go everywhere people can go, as well as the many
places they can’t, have been used in some cases to film the inside of the mouths of
alligators, sharks and polar bears.